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A few days ago, we were telling you about a potentially groundbreaking study which found a rather surprising correlation between height and cancer incidence. The study made quite a wave within the scientific community and was met with quite mixed opinions. Here are some of those impressions, from leading experts in the field. Prof Mel […]
Two drugs, currently prescribed to organ transplant patients to suppress their immune system after the procedure, show great promise as birth-control medicine for men, according to a study published in the journal Science.
For every extra 10 cm in height from the median, the chance of getting cancer increases by 11% for men and 18% for women. The link was reported by Swedish researchers at the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology meeting in Barcelona, Spain. While other studies have reported this link, this was the largest yet performed involving 5.5 million Swedish men and women ranging in height from 1 meter (3.3 ft) to 2.25 meters (7.4 ft).
Yesterday, we wrote about how the Chinese will be selling genetically engineered micro-pigs as pets; the pigs, which were originally developed to serve as cheaper models for the human body, were engineered to grow only up to 25 kgs, but they also raise some important concerns: is it ethical? Should we engineer animals so that […]
Publication bias strikes again: because only positive results are published in scientific journals, medical literature greatly overstates the benefits of talk therapy for depression.
Drivers and passengers who light one up while kids are in the car now face fines in England in Wales, in an attempt to curve down the effects of passive smoking.
In what can only be classed as a breakthrough in medicine, a team at Washington University in St. Louis found a way to make an universal test that can identify virtually any known virus. The method works by analyzing bodily samples for signature genetic markers unique to each virus. It's surprisingly accurate, as the researchers report the test not only identified the viruses on par with standard tests, but found additional ones which would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Once it passes extensive clinical trials, doctors using the test could come up with a complete list of viral infections harbored inside a patient's body, correctly diagnose their condition and apply the right treatment. In some situations, it could mean the difference between life and death.
Many researchers have expressed concerns about using such advanced techniques for such frivolous purposes, and personally, I feel like this could cascade onto many other problems - despite their undeniable cuteness.
A new study conducted on medical consumption of cannabis came up with some good news, and some bad news: for starters, while there were some adverse effects on consumers, no serious effects were reported. However, the reduction in pain also seems to be very small.
Paleontologists believe they have found the oldest evidence of the bubonic plague, embedded in a flea trapped in amber for the past 20 million years. This could provide insight onto how this devastating disease appeared and evolved.
Our ability to inhibit impulsive behaviors, to exercise willpower, is considered a core feature of the brain's executive functions. This, along with others such as reasoning, working memory and attention regulate our thoughts and guide our behavior, allowing us to adapt them to the changing demands of our environment. But the effort our brain puts into refraining from impulses is so great that it can actually diminish its ability to form memories of the experience.
Fewer materials in nature rival the toughness and resilience of a tooth or a seashell, and it's all due to their unique structure; viewed under powerful enough microscope, they reveal layers upon layers of micro-plates, perfectly aligned and fused together. Material scientists have long sought to produce something that imitates these structures, with comparable properties and complexity, but apart from nacre (mother-of-pearl) they've had very little success. Until now.
After they analyzed more than 2,000 traditional Indian recipes down to the molecular levels, scientists now think they know what makes Indian cuisine so appealing. Unlike western dishes, Indian recipes are based on ingredients whose flavors don't overlap for a unique taste that dumbstrucks anyone who tries it for the first time.
Each memory relies on three critical elements, those being the "what," "where" and "when" building blocks. Neuroscientists from MIT have identified a brain circuit -- connecting the hippocampus and a region of the cortex known as entorhinal cortex -- that handles the "when" and "where" components.
University of Washington researchers have created the first telepathic link between two humans. Their technique didn't rely on supernatural powers, but rather on nerve impulses, electrodes, and advanced science.
Enamel, the hard, mineralized substance that covers your teeth originated on tough fish scales and then migrated to the teeth, researchers found
New research suggests that simply fidgeting around could counter some of the effects of sitting down for too long.
For the first time, Japanese researchers have successfully grown a pair of kidneys in a lab and then transplanted them into animals. The organs functioned just fine, and this gives big hopes for the transplants ultimately moving to humans.
Humans are walking ecosystems. Each of us carries around about 100 trillion microbes in and on our bodies, which make up our microbiome. The quality of this bacterial community has a lot to say about our health and well-being. The blend of microbes is also surprisingly unique, which says a lot about who we are […]
Ian Lipkin, a virus hunter from Columbia University, along with fellow professors Thomas Briese and Amit Kapoor have designed a new system, known as VirCapSeq-VERT, that they claim can detect any known human virus in a blood sample.
Developed by Transmedics, the OCS Heart, often referred to as the “heart in a box,” is a machine that keeps a heart supplied with blood and oxygen for several hours. This allows it to be moved to another patient for transplant. Heart transplants aren’t exactly a new thing—the first one was performed in 1967—but the organ is usually kept on ice while being moved. So why bother keeping a heart beating at all? What does this device do that ice can’t? As it turns out, quite a bit.
A team working at the Francis Crick Institute in London applied to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a permit that would allow them to edit genes in a human embryo. If allowed, this would lead to the very first genetically modified embryo in the UK. The scientists claim they need approval to do basic research that may " improve embryo development after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and might provide better clinical treatments for infertility,” and not for clinical research. Either way, the controversial practice is banned in all Western countries and virtually banned, although not explicitly, in the US.
A video of an ape, breaking out of its cage and attacking; the victim -- a human scientist, that picks up a small red hammer and defends himself, battering the primate ran amok. It sounds like a pretty gruesome video, bound to have animal right's activists redouble their efforts to see the heartless jailers brought to justice. But hey, wait a minute... Apes don't wear sneakers.
A dubious pharmaceutical startup recently bought the rights to a drug that treats a parasitic infection, then raised the price 500-fold seemingly over night. The drug targets a somewhat rare condition that affects immune compromised pregnant women, but also malaria and AIDS. Ironically enough, it was developed by a much hated big pharma company, GlaxoSmithKline, in 1953 and used to cost $1 a pill only a couple years ago. It has since traded hands twice, before coming under the control of Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager.
Fourteen years ago, a leading drug maker conducted a study which concluded that Paxil, an antidepressant, was effective and safe for teenagers. But now, a major medical journal published an analysis concluded the opposite.
Regular soap is really good at killing bacteria, but most people feel that antibacterial soaps are even better. After all, they're antibacterial, right? Well, according to a thorough research, that's not true at all - regular soap works just as good as antibacterial soap.
A research team has demonstrated the effectiveness of a 3-antibiotic cocktail that kills methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in all mice that were treated with it.
The most detail study of its kind found air pollution is responsible 3.3 million premature deaths. Based on current trends of agricultural and industrial expansion, the study projects 6.6 million will succumb to soot and smog in 2050, or double today's death toll. Most of these fatalities will be registered in developing nations like India, Pakistan and China.
New research has found evidence of emotional burden sharing (also known as load sharing) between partners in a close relationship. The study, co-authored by Queen's University PhD candidate Jessica Lougheed, found that a strong personal relationship can help ease stress when placed in difficult situations.
By 'tickling' select membrane channels you can effectively control neurons, by activating or deactivating cells. You can do this using electrical currents, like we see very well illustrated in brain-computer interfaces; light (the field of optogenetics); and sound (sonogenetics). Yes, sound. This was only recently demonstrated by researchers at Salk's Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory who used ultrasounds to control neurons in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
Scientists have genetically modified yeast to produce the main psychoactive substance in marijuana, THC. Responsible for most of weed's effects (including the high), THC can also be used for medical purposes, to treat symptoms of HIV infection and chemotherapy.
Reconstructive surgery just got an upgrade after a patient who had lost four ribs and part of his sternum had a 3-D printed titanium replica fitted instead. This was the first such procedure. Although the operation was a sound success with the replica matching like a glove, doctors say that this sort of intervention is only for really extreme cases. You can't become Wolverine overnight, not exactly at least.
A 28-year old who has been paralyzed for more than a decade following a spinal cord injury has become the first person to be able to “feel” physical sensations, through a special prosthetic developed by DARPA – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a US agency responsible for the development of emerging technologies, mostly for military purposes. The […]
Leafcutter ants in South America grow fungus as crops, this has been known for quite a while. But their crops show clear signs of domestication, which means that when it comes to farming, the ants might have beaten us by some 50 million years. Ant farmers When people started growing crops, they unwittingly made changes […]
Humans are naturally lazy, as they'll always find a way to execute a movement, even a simple act like walking, with the least expenditure of energy. Our nervous system, it seems, is hot-hired to find the optimal energy balance for any movement. It's so good at it, that it adapts to a new gait or environment within a matter of minutes.
A French court upheld on Thursday a 2012 ruling in which Monsanto was found guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer who suffered from neurological problems after inhaling the U.S. company’s Lasso weedkiller. Alachlor is an herbicide, the second most widely used herbicide in the United States; it’s been banned in Europe since 2006, but in 2004, […]
A promising diagnosis test can accurately detect cancer in 7 out of 10 patients just by reading telltale genetic mutations found in the blood. While it will not replace invasive biopsies when the test runs negative, the procedure could help identify tumours earlier. When cancer is involved, the faster you find it, the better the chance of surviving it.
While analysing starch grains on ancient stone grinding tools from southern Italy, Marta Mariotti Lippi at the University of Florence in Italy and her colleagues were able to date the earliest known human consumption of oats as far back as 32,000 years ago – way before farming took root.
It's been only a decade since the Human Genome Project finished its task of mapping all the code that makes up our DNA. The hard part came later, though - identifying what each piece of code does or, oddly enough, does not. According to the most recent estimate for instance, only 8.2% of the code embedded in the human genome is actually useful, in the sense that it performs a function whether activating a gene, regulating it, and so on. The rest is what scientists class as "junk DNA".
There's no cure for Alzheimer's - the devastating neurodegenerative disease which causes progressive dementia in 5.3 million Americans - only treatments that help slow down a certain outcome. A milestone research may have finally broken the dry spell in Alzheimer's research looking for the much sought after cure. While current drugs help mask symptoms, a intravenous drug developed by US researchers actually treats the disease itself with patients showing marked improvements in memory and cognition. At the brain level, new blood vessel formation and an increase in neuronal cell counts was registered. The bad news is that the Alzheimer's patients are rats and experience has taught us that Alzheimer's research seldom translates to humans. Seldom, not never though.
A recent study performed by researchers working at the University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School and the University of Nevada suggests that the current school and university start times have a damaging effect on the learning and health of students.
The right music can evoke powerful emotions seemingly out of the blue, but under the influence of LSD the musical experience is enhanced even further. This according to the Beckley/Imperial Psychedelic Research Programme which tested this long held assumption under a modern placebo-controlled study for the very first time.
One of the planet's most endangered antelope, the saiga, suffered from a die-off of unprecedented scope. The massive loss of life from just a few weeks ago has conservationist groups worried about what future may hold for the species. But clues as to exactly what wiped out half of Kazakhstan's saiga are starting to emerge, and scientists are looking at bacteria that normally co-exist with the antelope host, harmlessly living in their bodies as the main culprit.
Americans' love affair with coffee has turned into an obsession. More than half report drinking coffee at least 3.1 cups each day, totaling a $40 billion market. For some, regular coffee isn't enough so they go for the extract: powdered caffeine. The drug is unregulated and can be sold over the counter in any pharmacy. You can even buy a one kilo bag (2.2 pounds) off Amazon and have it delivered to your doorstep. So, what's the problem? It's caffeine right? Well, to problem is that even a few teaspoons of the powdered caffeine mixed with a drink can potentially kill you. It's really, really easy to overdose and, case in point, two teenagers passed away last year in separate incidents. They had no idea what they were doing, and the confusing labeling might have had something do with it. Now, the FDA has officially sent warning letters to the biggest US producers of powdered caffeine that they should change their labeling in 15 days from the issued order.
A startling report by The Guardian reveals how the American Egg Board (AEB) - a government-backed board which gets a levy of 20 cents per case of eggs sold by its constituent members - lobbied against a food startup that's been gathering steam lately. Feeling threatened, AEB used its influence to put pressure on the FDA, USDA and Unilever to basically ruin Hampton Creek's business. Hampton Creek is a Silicon Valley startup which has so far gathered $120 million in funding. Its flagship products include eggs made out of plants and egg-less mayo, called Just Mayo which Joanne Ivy, president of the American Egg Board, refers to as “a crisis and major threat to the future of the egg product business.”
Doctors found that a British man has been excreting live polio virus for nearly 28 years, despite being vaccinated. These sort of cases aren't unique, but this is by far the longest cases seen thus far. Moreover, the immune deficiency has allowed the virus to mutate and replicate inside the man's body. Doctors say, however, that there are no health hazards involved since the man lives in a immunized community.
Is this our most obvious, useless headline yet? Might be, but don't hate the messenger. I'm just reiterating the findings of Canadian and Dutch researchers who performed two distinct studies to see what's the best relief against hangovers. Their conclusions are stark: there is no proven remedy against hangovers. If you want to avoid feeling like train wreck in the morning you should simply drink less.
For girls about to have their first period in rural India, menstruation can change their lives for the worst. Unable to afford disposable pads and tampons, girls often use rags which they reuse risking all sorts of health complications due to lack of sanitation. Many also decide to drop out of school out of fear that their rags might show or leak blood. “A fear of staining their clothes and being teased or humiliated about it by their male classmates seems to be a major reason of girls themselves choosing to miss their classes,” Maria Fernandez Ruiz de Larrinaga, communications specialist at UNICEF India says.
For the first time, aggressive breast, lung and bladder cancer have been neutralized and turned back to normal cells, prevented from excessive multiplication. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, US, likened it to applying brakes to a speeding car.
The results of a new UEA study reveal that people who eat high levels of certain amino acids found in meat and plant-based protein have lower blood pressure and show less arterial stiffness, directly translating to higher levels of cardiovascular health. The magnitude of the association is similar to those previously reported for lifestyle risk factors including salt intake, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking.
